Yo Pit Crazies,

It is Valentine’s Day so I thought I would take a walk down memory lane. No, this is not about old girlfriends from the 1980s and 1990s. It is about an encounter with a certain Jon “Dr. J” Najarian of CNBC fame.

Before he was an Option Monster and Market Rebel he ran a post on the CBOE called Mercury Trading, and it was a hopping pit. I ran the Group One DPM (Designated Primary Market Maker) post. I was one of the youngest on the floor. Back then it was the busiest post for our option trading firm and one of the busiest on the CBOE floor.

I was, let’s say, a presence back then. Six foot three, lots of hair, and I liked the scrum of floor trading. I hammered new guys because it was fun and I could. My post had 20 traders in it and it was well run with two brokers in the crowd.

I knew Dr. J since he had a partner in our post, Huff, and Huff was soon to retire after getting filthy rich in the 80s trading options. He retired to Vermont of all places, and I wish I kept in touch with him. He bought and restored one of the largest houses in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago. As a young crazy trader I liked Huff, but he was retiring.

Well, he was about to be replaced.

There was a lull for a while in our crowd with Mercury, which was odd because it was a money-making crowd. I figured out later why.

Dr. J came over and asked me, “Hey Andrew, I want to stick my brother in your crowd.”

Oh, ok Jon, sure, I want another mouth to feed. But he asked me to be nice and help him out as a favor. Help his brother learn the ropes, so to speak. I was surprised to say the least. Be nice to the guy I am putting in your pit to take order flow? I told Licia that in a trader meeting Friday and she went, “WTF, who asks that?” Apparently Dr. J.

I told the crowd we were getting a new guy by the name of Pete Najarian. He was just coming out of football and needed a place to get going. The crowd of course was not happy with the idea.

Well, Pete showed up. Everyone was determined to not like him and haze the crap out of him, which we did a little. But he was large and quite frankly a good guy. It was hard to haze him for too long. Some guys it was very easy to haze.

Remember, when you are a new guy walking into a trading crowd you know nothing and are like a big piggy bank. It is quite unnerving. I know. I was a new guy too 35 years ago.

Pete ended up fitting in for a few months until after he learned the ropes and Jon took him back to help with his post.

So your humble Trading Mentor helped a TV guy way back in the early 1990s. I have helped many.

Now the guy they replaced Pete with, that is another story.

To Your Trading Success,

AG